Testing!!! No one really wants to do it. It’s
expensive. It’s time consuming. But fortunately, it’s needed to ensure that our
consumers have a positive experience when they use our mobile applications. And
it’s vital that you make sure that the experience is a great one for every
consumer every time they use our applications, starting with that very first
time. But when it comes to testing mobile applications there are unique
challenges.
The mobile enterprise is no longer on its way – it is
here. This is creating a mobile app revolution that is driving the need for
fast, effective application testing that mimics your user base in terms of
technical environments, locations, and demographics. And while it’s tempting to
think that mobile apps won’t alter your company or industry, no space is exempt
from the mobile revolution.
According to a recent survey by Bloomberg Business
week Research Services, enterprise mobility is no longer just for email.
Employees are using mobile apps to access CRM systems, financial results,
marketing campaigns, and to track orders, to name just a few. In fact, ABI
Research anticipates worldwide enterprise mobile data revenues will reach $133
billion by 2014.
New apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and Android are making deep in‐roads into
enterprise organizations in industries as diverse and mature as healthcare,
finance, education, media, and retail. This means that the pressure to get high
quality mobile apps built, tested, and launched has never been greater. With so
much critical data flowing to smart phones and tablets, companies must ensure
that their mobile apps are stable, private, and secure. Even the smallest flaw
can ruin a mobile app, and sometimes, the company behind it.
If an organization does not focus on the functionality, usability,
reliability, and security of the application, they may find themselves in the
awkward position of explaining to their customers, or the CEO, why their
application was rejected by the apps store, or why users are sharing their
dissatisfaction on Twitter, Facebook, TechCrunch, and others. This mobile
quality challenge calls for a better way to test, one that meets the “in‐the‐wild” testing
demands of mobile apps.
Three Alternative Testing Methods -
The three testing approaches that have historically been used in mobile
are insufficient for the challenges of this new reality. That doesn’t mean they
are bad or ill‐intentioned, merely that they aren’t sufficient on
their own. Here’s a quick summary:
- In‐House: Building a comprehensive in‐house testing lab is extremely time‐consuming and expensive. Imagine the expense of building an in‐house team and lab capable of assuring the functionality for iPhone, Blackberry and Android handsets (of all makes and models) across wireless carriers in the U.S., U.K, Australia, China and Japan. For reasons of cost and coverage, it’s no surprise that mobile app companies rarely rely solely on in‐house testing resources.
- Emulators/Simulators: One of the biggest challenges for mobile developers is that traditional testing is occurring in an environment far removed from the real world. The gap between “in‐the‐lab” simulation and “in‐the‐wild” usage is vast and cannot be ignored. The convenience of simulators and emulators has made it easy to be lured into a false sense of security, but they should not be considered a substitute for real‐world, on‐device testing.
- Beta Testers: It’s rare for a software company to attract a large group of beta testers to test their app. After all, not every company can be Google, with its wildly popular beta versions. But even if you can assemble a large beta group, the method still falls short on its own. First, if a beta goes poorly, most companies can’t afford to have it happen in the bright lights of the blogosphere or Twitter. Beta testers are more often like users in that they will only try to get your app to function properly; a real tester will systemically structure their usage to identify weaknesses in your app.
CROWDSOURCED Mobile App Testing
The increasingly fragmented device and platform environment has
escalated the demand for comprehensive, always‐on global testing; however, testing mobile apps has
traditionally been difficult and expensive. No matter what type of mobile app,
multimedia, chat, business, or productivity tools, all mobile app developers
face the same testing complexity across:
- Handset Makers & Models
- Operating Systems
- Browsers
- Wireless Carriers
- Languages (for multi‐geo apps)
- Location, Location, Location
Through crowdsourcing, companies can meet mobile’s “in the wild” testing
needs by utilizing a community of diverse and talented professional testers,
capable of testing their app across any and all criteria, and on an on‐demand basis. Your users are distributed around the
country (or globe), so your testers should be too. And just as your users
utilize your app outside the sterile confines of the testing lab, under “in the
wild” conditions so too should your testers. With the rapid evolution of
crowdsourced testing, top companies are doing the impossible: maintaining app
quality, achieving broad testing coverage, meeting launch dates, and staying
within budget.
